Firefox 3.1 to offer private browsing

Rush to shield online pervs follows IE, Safari and Chrome

The Register and Computerworld report that the next version of Firefox will include private browsing features similar to those found in Internet Explorer 8, Apple Safari and Google's Chrome browsers.

Firefox 3.1, due for a beta release next month, will discard cookies acquired during the private session, not record sites visited, disable auto-filling of passwords and automatically remove downloads made using Firefox's download manager.

Safe to share

Mozilla has been planning a private mode for some time, but was spurred into action by the positive reaction to Chrome's Incognito and IE8's InPrivate modes. These let users keep their surfing secret, especially on shared computers.

Firefox lead developer Mike Connor said on Monday, ""We can and will get this into 3.1 one way or another."